Sunday, August 19, 2001


so after my yoga lesson this afternoon, i went out for coffee with yoga teacher frank jude boccio. he showed me a cute little place on smith st. here in brooklyn, where i actually had a rare, rare thing -- an espresso in a cafe that was actually drinkable. and drinkable without sugar!

oh yes, i was talking to fjb about alt.coffee and he said they great profiteroles at this place. so we duly ordered scrumptious goat cheese and eggplant panini, then profiteroles and espresso. it's almost unheard of nowadays to get a drinkable espresso outside one's own home, you know?

but we did. the barista, stacey, used the cafe's ecm donatello commercial machine pretty well; while the crema could have been a shade darker -- it lacked "el tigre" or tiger mottle, the distinctive darker brown striping in the crema that is one indicator of perfect espresso -- i was still deeply impressed. stacey's rich, mellow espresso is worth drinking, and i think if she had more formal training than just bumping around liguria and making ends meet in neighborhood cafes, she could be a coffee star.

oh, and the profiteroles are delicious too. where is this little brooklyn neighborhood marvel? panino'teca 275, 275 smith st., brooklyn. ask to have stacey make your coffee.

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